Theresa,
I read the other replies, which were all great and wanted to add one thing; some items are considered “rare” if they are one-of-a-kind. The map might not be valuable or fragile or old, but if it is the only one in the world, it might end up in the rare map holdings. This happens for mostly manuscript maps, of course.
Why you would have a less than valuable or fragile map in a rare area would be based on your collection policies. A map by an important person in your institution might be very significant to your holdings, but not so much to the rest of the world.
Colleen
Colleen R. Cahill
Digital Conversion Coordinator and
Recommending Officer for Fantasy and Science Fiction
Geography & Map Division
Library of Congress
101 Independence Ave. SE
Washington, DC 20540-4650
Voice: 202-707-8540
Fax: 202-707-8531
These opinions are mine, Mine, MINE!
From: Maps-L: Discussion Forum for Maps, Air Photo, Map Librarianship, GIS, etc. [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Theresa Quill
Sent: Thursday, October 16, 2014 2:15 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Classification of Rare Maps
Hi all,
I'm in the middle of revamping what we consider "rare maps" and I was wondering if y'all have policies that spell out which maps are "rare". Do you do it by date? If so, what is your cutoff? Number of copies in the world? Relevance to your institution?
For example, the USGS 15 and 30 minute topos are OLD but not necessarily RARE. We also have some newer maps that we hold the only cataloged copy for. So maybe there's a hybrid solution? If you do have a policy, would you mind sharing it?
Thanks!
--
Theresa Quill
Map/GIS Coordinator, Herman B Wells Library
MLS Candidate, School of Library and Information Science
Indiana University